Trust is integral to the prosperity of a company and its potential in reaching a larger market. With blaring headlines underlining the unethical leadership of high profile businesses in today’s news, integrity has become a heightened issue for consumers. People no longer look to companies for an honest representation of their values and offerings; more are seeking the advice and consultation of fellow customers. Social media has become an outlet for concerned citizens and a forum for distributing genuine, straightforward opinions and feedback.

Consumers rely on social media websites for product information more so than company websites according to current research. 70% of consumers have visited a social media website - such as message board, social network, instant messenger, blog, video sharing site or chat room - in order to get information about a company, brand or product. People are also more likely to pass along information they gather from social media sites, and use these sites as word-of-mouth tools for sharing with friends.

Companies that understand the value in social media know that in order for their participation in the online space to be relevant and worthwhile, they can’t hide behind the guise of their brand image. They need to interact with their audience without hidden agendas, and stand behind the principle that their engagement with social users is mutually beneficial. Social media is an optimal platform for a corporation to reflect transparency to the consumer and break down the bureaucratic structures that hinder open and trusting communication. In the web world, consumers create the brand messages. The only way to avoid having your image tarnished on the internet is to encourage interaction and demonstrate your support of the customer’s best interest.

But of course, building a trustworthy brand starts from the inside out. A business can only successfully convey its good character if employees believe in the values they preach to customers.

CEO Fionn Downhill and VP of Marketing Sean Warren made a trip to the Phoenix St. Mary’s Food Bank last week to present a donation that was raised from the AZ Tourism and Social Media Conference held November 19th. Handing the check off to President and CEO Terry Shannon, Fionn was proud knowing that the gift amount would contribute to over 3,500 meals for families in need during the holidays.

The event that allowed Elixir to donate to St. Mary’s was a great success — not only because it facilitated an important conversation about leveraging interactive marketing to promote Arizona as a travel destination, but because the tourism and marketing professionals who participated were happy knowing that their attendance benefited a local charity.

Elixir extends a special thanks to the three panelists who led the invigorating and enlightening idea exchange: Josh Kenzer, Scottsdale Convention & Visitors Bureau’s Online Marketing Manager; Evo Terra, celebrated blogger and podcaster; and Troy Thompson, Arizona Office of Tourism’s Senior Interactive Marketing Manager.

At Wednesday’s AZ travel and social media conference, marketing, tourism and hospitality professionals came together in the beautiful Scottsdale Plaza Resort to discuss the importance of implementing search and social media tactics in online marketing campaigns.  Elixir CEO Fionn Downhill captured the crowd with pertinent data that underlined the impact of user-generated content and reviews in influencing travel seekers in their destination selections.

The expert panel consisted of Evo Terra, “New Media Evangelist” and influential podcaster; Troy Thompson, Interactive Marketing Manager for the Arizona Office of Tourism; and Josh Kenzer, Online Marketing Manager for the Scottsdale Convention and Visitors Bureau. Discussion topics included the necessity of authenticity and the profound power of listening in online communication programs. Understanding audience sentiment and responding with sincerity to customer reviews is a strong way to build trust between your company and its customers.

“What is best for our audience?” asks Thompson when exploring the relevance of particular social sites for the AZ Office of Tourism. Blogs, Twitter and TripAdvisor are a few of the main platforms where the tourism office engages Internet users. Thompson is quick to note that out of the dozens of social sites available, not every blog, social network or content forum attracts the target market for the AZ Office of Tourism, so it is a waste of time and money to attempt to saturate every social media venue on the web.

Kenzer agrees that it’s essential to understand which social computing spaces are best for your brand. The SCVB views their blog as the focal point in their social media strategy. Kenzer takes advantage of the online journal’s capability of being constantly updated with new information; Twitter, Flickr and YouTube are utilized as avenues to drive traffic to the blog. Photos have especially drawn users to the Scottsdale site.

Terra, who’s social media prowess is evident by the 60+ social sites for which he’s active, believes that blogger engagement trumps the word-spreading power of journalists. In fact, prominent bloggers are taking over the role of traditional journalism, according to Terra, and provide invaluable link juice for brand web sites.

Shared among our panel was the belief that effective search engine optimization is essential for the success of any web site, as search still accounts for the largest percentage of web visitors. The three Internet media experts recommend hiring a reputable SEO company to drive rankings and manage analytics. To companies considering outside SEO services, Kenzer suggests that they establish the metrics they seek to improve upon beforehand: “You’re not paying money to keep static; you’re paying money to achieve your goals.”

Email marketing is a tactic conjuring up more debate. Thompson finds that Twitter has eclipsed his need for email messaging. “We’re pounding the Arizona message into them four times a day,” says Thompson, whose multiple, daily tweets are more relevant touch points in the company’s marketing strategy than weekly emails. In contrast, the other two panelists believe that email is an incredibly efficient and effective way to directly connect with consumers. This demonstrates the variability of campaign strategies depending upon the profile of a target market.

Interested in learning search and social best practices, conference attendees sought strategy ideas for ways in which to reach their online marketing goals. Jill Personius from BJ Communications took a variety of pointers from the idea exchange and will apply what she learned to a property launch she’s working on with a popular hotel chain. Personius says that the conference helped her to consider “where to get the most bang for your buck” in interactive marketing. With a greater understanding of the bigger picture, the communications associate hopes to spearhead social media efforts for the hotel development, and transfer the insights she gained from the conference to corporate decision-makers.

Elixir is thrilled with the success of the conference; seeing audience members interact, share and learn from each others’ experiences was a powerful indicator of the value it brought to participants.

Social media may be the next wave in marketing, but how do you know if your company is well-equipped to jump into the interactive pool without drowning? Before touching your toes to the water, survey your brand’s assets, audience and breadth of ability to participate on social sites in order to gauge your social media readiness.

According to a recent article on iMediaconnection.com, there are four critical questions to ask that outline a brand’s social media potential.

1) Do you have inventory? Is it valuable to your audience?

To Elixir, this question means: What kinds of content do you have on your site that can be leveraged? Each quality media component is valuable for usage in a social campaign. Articles, images and videos can be spread across the social web and used to engage your audience. Inventory can be overlooked from a company perspective, but often the assets that are most successful in building a brand identity are sitting right in front of you. Tweet your video of the week or point fingers to an arresting image. Streaming pre-existing content into the web is the best approach to initiate presence.

2) What way does your audience use technology?

Use technology in the ways that best fit your consumers’ needs. At Elixir we explore where and how your audience interacts online: Does your target market connect with friends and family using Picasso, or do they prefer Facebook? Expand your consideration outside social media: What ways in the real world do your customers use technology to make their lives easier? Incorporate social media methods into their common technology needs.

3) Are you ready for help to be its own reward?

For help to be its own reward, revenue can’t be a priority. That can be hard to grasp for many brands. ROI is reaped by actively facilitating the needs and wants of your customers in regards to the product or services you offer. The benefits of social media campaigns aren’t always immediately apparent; the long term return will be seen in improved awareness of customer opinion, translating into a better brand.

4) Are you willing to apply people to the solution?

As commonsensical as it may sound, you do actually have to spend time understanding the social media spaces your customers are active on in order to put in to action a successful campaign. This means that you should NOT simply prop your brand within social networks or strategically place ads to fake your presence. Rather than representing the brand as a static corporate entity within a massively active space, you need to converse as individuals of the company with your consumers to accurately observe their responses and build upon your brand.

The holiday season is going to be cutthroat this year and unfortunately it’s not due to a shortage of Elmo plush toys. A sagging economy plagued with higher gas prices, housing foreclosures, and a shaky stock market weigh heavily on the minds of consumers. According to comScore, “82 percent of consumers cut back spending in [the second quarter,] because of concerns about the economy.” Forecasts estimate a dismal holiday season with sales growth estimated to increase by a dismal 1.5 percent over last year.

In such a competitive climate retailers will have to work harder to convince leery holiday shoppers to spend more. Winning over customers in a time when companies are becoming increasingly constrained by their budgets isn’t easy, posing perhaps the greatest strain on marketing. A paradigm shift is eminent when big advertising spenders, such as Coca-Cola, announce that they’re reducing their investment in television and traditional media this season. The withdraw is not just a move to reduce costs, but to redirect the strategy to include more digital marketing, which is expected to yield the most growth and return this year.

More Shopping is Expected to be Online than in Stores

This season holiday shoppers are expected to turn out in greater numbers at online shopping venues than in brick-and-mortar stores, according to an annual “Mindset of the Multi-Channel Shopper Holiday Survey” conducted by the e-Tailing group. The reasons cited by consumers go beyond “saving money” or high gasoline prices, extending to what has always made online shopping convenient, such as “saving time,” “locating hard-to-find products,” and “avoiding crowds at the mall.” Now that the majority of consumers have changed their buying patterns, retailers can no longer ignore the power of marketing online. In this market, a well-targeted pay-per-click campaign may not only be less expensive, but also more relevant and effective, in driving sales than traditional advertising methods, like television commercials and highway billboards. With the anticipated rise in online traffic, it’s reasonable to expect improved return on investment for both online advertising initiatives and interactive marketing campaigns this season.

Social Media Satisfies Consumers

Not only are adult consumers saying that they want to buy online, but they’re using social media extensively to make shopping decisions. Product and service research, comparative price shopping, customer reviews - a study conducted by MarketTools has shown that about 70 percent of online adults go to blogs, online communities or social networks to make decisions about what they buy before they buy it. Reading these conversations gives retailers candid insight into the purchasing habits of their target market. The two-way channel of interactive marketing channels also provides retailers with an opportunity to better serve their customers and address their concerns, building brand loyalty. Consumers not only appreciate the effort, but most now expect businesses to engage in social media. Retailers who are not active in the social space risk being perceived as out-of-touch by their customers and make it easier for a more digitally-inclined competitor to steal potential sales.

Building Trust Yields Solid Sales

In tough economic times, people want certainty, assurance, and less risk. As consumers become more selective about where and how they spend their money, retailers have to earn their trust if they want to maximize sales. Impersonal, uncaring “corporations” are perceived to be the villains of the failing economy. It is essential for retailers to distance themselves from that image and instead relate to consumers, or at least show that the company “cares”. In a recent interview with Advertising Age, Antonio Lucio, who is the global chief marketing officer for Visa, suggested that “. . . in times of uncertainty, when more people are spending more time at home, uplifting people or providing that message of ‘What life should be’ would be equally important. … It’s probably more important than ever.” To achieve this messaging, several businesses are successfully reaching out to their customers using social media channels like blogs, MySpace or Twitter.

The Future

If one thing is for certain it is that consumers are more digitally savvy this holiday season than ever before. They are using online technologies and social media to solve their primary convenience and economic concerns to get the best deals and to optimize their shopping experiences. In the same vein, now is the time for retailers to embrace interactive marketing to maximize their sales and growth potential for this holiday season and into the future.

As the coverage of the presidential election intensifies on CNN, I hear the social media microblog Twitter referenced as often as I hear Obama and McCain mention “Joe the plumber”. CNN is the most notable broadcast network that leverages and promotes the use of Twitter. CNN clearly grasps the utility of Twitter to connect with a widely distributed audience, virtually instantaneously, and for free. Social media guru, Chris Brogan, has recently published an article highlighting 50 ideas on using Twitter for business, where he highlights the effectiveness of Twitter for use in opinion polls, and its unparalleled speed at breaking news. So if you know of other effective uses of Twitter in business, please let me know.

The most effective – and appropriate — use of social media marketing is to change a relationship by building trust. Assuming that, social media ROI should not be measured in financial terms, but instead, in relationship terms: and exchange of social currency to build social capital. Social currency is the reputation score an individual or entity acquires in a particular social network that credibly reflects their value in that network, according to John Clippinger at the Commons Blog. Social currency represents the liquid form of social capital, and trust in the basis for social capital, as described by Tara Hunt, CEO of Citizen Agency. Wikipedia defines social capital as the connections within and between social networks. Unlike traditional forms of capital, social capital is not depleted by use. So how does search and social media intersect? James Lamberti of comScore, suggests that social media engagements drive search – the truest expression of interest and trust in your brand, even if they do not click. Through active listening and participation, a successful social media engagement identifies where people are talking about your brand and what they are saying. This interaction provides a window into what people think, and provides opportunities to utilize social currency to further build social capital.  An analysis of search behaviors confirms what people think by analyzing how they have acted. By tracking the changes in branded searches over time (how people have acted), one can deduce a change in thinking has occurred. If branded searches have increased as a result of social media participation, then one can assume an exchange of social currency and an increase in social capital – and that social capital is your ROI.

Although many organizations have achieved great short term results with PPC and display adverstising, nothing produces better long-term ROI than an effective SEO strategy that produces high organic rankings. As keyword prices continue to climb — some costing as much as $45 per click — the value of an effective SEO strategy also increases. Not only are organic “clicks” free, but surveys show that organic results are more trusted and that trust tranlates into more conversions.

The most recent holiday sales forecasts from comScore reveal that online sales will experience the most growth of any channel. The forecasts indicate the greatest ROI from advertising dollars directed to online advertising. According to comScore, “SEO and SEM initiatives have never been so important.” Unfortunately, many marketing budgets are set for the season, so those marketers who have the flexibility to divert resources toward PPC and display advertising in the coming weeks, will reap great rewards.

In the September 22 issue of DM News, Lauen Bell writes about the need of marketers to “Get social with teens.”

She talks about how “young consumers demand that brands converse with them…in their language, through multiple channels and with the intention of listening.”

I would argue that we need to communicate with ALL of our customers in this manner.

Before we craft the message we need to take the time to understand the language of our target audience. The major search engines provide us with a tremendous amount of information about the language people use when they search. For example, are there more searches for “drapes” or “curtains”? By using this information, we can craft our marketing messages in THEIR language, not ours.

In addition to language, we need to ensure our message reaches our target audience through the channels with which they are most likely to interact. Email, display and PPC might be a powerful combination for some, while SEO, social networks and mobile may be ideal for others.

Lastly, we need to work more on LISTENING to our customers. With the proliferation of blogs and user-generated content our customers are eager to tell us exactly what they like and dont like. If we take the time to listen to what they are saying, we can learn a lot about how, when and where our customers want to interact.

Ms. Bell is right about how to appeal to teens through social media however we, as marketers, need to apply these best practices to ALL of our customer communications.